The total rateable land in Victoria as at June 2012 was valued at $1.05 trillion and covered approximately 23 million hectares, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

The ABS Land Account publication also found that land classified as residential by the state of Victoria represents $878 billion or 83 per cent of Victoria's total rateable land value but only 5 per cent of the state's total area. More than half of all land in Victoria (56 per cent) is classified for primary production.

Mark Lound, Director of Environmental Accounts said, "This publication shows that 220,000 new land parcels were made available in Victoria between 2006 and 2011, supporting an increase of 8 per cent in the population for Victoria over the same period. More than 80 per cent of these new parcels were less than 750sqm in area,"

"This detailed land account integrates social, economic and environmental data with a spatial dimension, powered by Google Earth®, covering land area and value; population and land development; land use; and land cover.

"I encourage the community to explore the product, especially the Google Earth® images which demonstrate an exciting new way of viewing statistical data.

"Information from the Land Account can be used to inform debate and decision–making on a wide range of issues, including population settlement; land management; measuring the health of the environment and the sustainable production of goods and services.

"This one–stop–shop is a result of a massive collaborative effort from several government agencies to provide a range of information on land use, land value and land cover", Mr Lound said.

The ESRI® Geodatabase and Mapinfo versions can be downloaded from the ABS website and used as a socio–economic layer in a GIS system.